Mark's Musings

Mark Bronkalla

Holiday  party
The Holiday party was great fun. We had a pretty good turn out with more
tables being required for some late-comers. Toys were everywhere. We were a
bit tight on display space, but made the best of it. The food and service at
Meyers was excellent. This was in my opinion the best dinner we have had
since I have joined the guild.

The toy display was awesome. There was lots of variety and several new
designs. In my estimation, the workmanship hit a new overall high. Lots of
attention paid to not only “fun design”, but also sturdiness of construction
and great “hand feel”. So many of the toys just invite you to pick them up
and play with them that the feel is very important.

I had the pleasure of delivering to the APFV office in Elkhorn. The staff
was oohing and awing over the toys and there were many comments as they
helped unload the truck as they looked for their personal favorites. We got
a nice thank-you card form them (which will be at the next meeting). All of
the toys are expected to be gone by Christmas.

Workbench workshops
We will be having the workbench workshop series at Jerry Tackes’ spacious
new shop. We have the basic design laid out and Jerry will be procuring the
materials and doing the prep work. If you can help with the prep, I am sure
he would appreciate it.

We are building a formal cabinet maker’s bench to use for guild meetings and
demonstrations. It will be 4 foot long by 2 foot wide and have a tool tray.
The end vise will be a Veritas twin screw, and the front vise will be a
standard, metal, woodworking vise (Record style).  The trestle will be a
knock down design.

The workshops will be hands on, but we will be building only the demo bench.
They will be every other Saturday starting January 8th for 4 sessions.

This is a great chance to see how to build your own bench and learn basic
joinery skills. We will be gluing up the top with “cheater” dog holes, hand
cut dovetails for the top wrapper (yes 2” thick dovetails), through wedged
mortise and tenons for the legs, and knock down hardware with mortise and
tenons plus bed bolts for the stretchers. On top of all of that we will be
doing large surface flattening and hand planning, winding stick use, and
mounting of two distinctly different vise setups.

In all, this is quite a variety of techniques and will include hands on
sessions. You will even get to sign your joint on the bench when done!

On top of the fun of the workshop and all that you will learn, you just have
to see Jerry’s beautiful new shop. Big, neat, finished beautifully and very
scenic.

In the shop
Toymaking
We completed our production run of doll cradles. This was a lot of fun with
Teal and David helping out a lot. This year they were done in Ash, Oak and
Pine. It is fun working with the various woods and comparing the difference
in techniques required (for example scraping works great on hardwoods, but
is a disaster on pine). It also took a little extra care to keep from mixing
up the hardwood and softwood parts. Each cradle is made entirely of either
the pine or varying mixes of oak and ash.

Finish colors
With the variety of woods, we elected to stain the cradles. With the pine,
extra care is needed to avoid splotching. We ended up with a Fruitwood stain
that looked good initially. The original plan was to spray a water based
poly finish. It just looked too drab. I then tried some orange shellac that
was left from a prior project. This really made a huge difference. It
immediately lightened up and started to glow with a kind of “honey pine”
look. Unfortunately, I did not have enough flakes for the entire batch.
Rummaging around I found some more orange shellac flakes, and mixed it up. I
started spraying again and was amazed at the difference in color. The first
batch was from  Hock (Woodcraft) and the second was from Homestead Finishes.
They were nowhere close in color. The Hock orange was a bright orange color.
The Homestead orange was a medium brown and not very orange at all in
comparison to the Hock orange. Both results were pleasing, but look very
different. This is one more variable to work with when finishing a project.
I sure will never assume again that the different manufacturers shellac
colors are interchangeable.  There is a similar difference in the garnet
shellacs from the two firms with the Hock being distinctly redder in color.

Marquetry
As I write this (12/12), I am in the midst of doing some marquetry projects
for Christmas presents. The workshops on veneering and marquetry have been
great, but I had been stuck at the point of not starting any veneering
projects. I have accumulated a  reasonable veneer supply thanks to a number
of purchases on E-bay. The vacuum pump is ready and the bag is nearly so.

Rather than wait for the bag to get done (and possibly not for a while), I
decided to take a different approach. I have picked a couple of projects and
started on the veneer assembly. They are a couple of serving trays. The
veneer work consists of a mariner’s star, set into a background field which
is surrounded by contrasting cross banding.  The first top is ready for
pressing and the second one has the start cut into the background field.

When I took the last veneering workshop I had attempted to cut the star into
a field during the class, but he results were not to my liking so it had
been set aside. This time, I fastened the veneer down to a self healing
cutting mat which was liberated from my wife’s sewing room (with her
permission of course). This made a huge difference. The veneer was taped
down and I could clearly feel and hear when the cuts had gone through all of
the way. Another nice feature is having the grid on the face, which makes
alignment and cutting miters with a chisel very easy (look in the reflection
on the chisel for a right angle to show a perfect 45 degree angle).

I figure I have about 3-4 more hours to get the bag and platens all set. The
end caps / locks need to be put on and the air fitting needs to be let into
the bottom of the bag. Hopefully I can get everything done in time for
Christmas, time is running short

Widget of the month
Magnetic stirrer / heater. This was another E-bay purchase. The stirrers are
common medical and chemistry lab units. You put the jar of gunk on top and
drop a bar magnet in the liquid. Turn it on and the magnet spins, mixing
your solution. It is also heated (and adjustable). I was getting batches of
shellac ready to use in 60-100 minutes. This was much faster and easier than
stirring by hand and waiting a day. You do have to stir some at first to
loosen up the flakes. These go for $50-75 plus shipping. This should also
work for heating hide glue or as a heater for finish prior to spraying - 90
degree shellac does seem to flow out better.  As a supplement I picked up a
new baby food chopper / grinder to $6.95 on sale locally which will
pulverize the flakes first so I hope to have sub-30 minute batches of
shellac - darn near as fast as pouring from a can.

JohnJohnson's (New President) first Article.. He is going to decide what to
call it soon I hope.  Says his daughters are working on a name for it. Also,
Si, I do not have a picture of him yet.

Happy New Year! I hope that you all have had a restful and joyous holiday
season! I look forward to the New Year as the Guild president and learning
new things about the members and woodworking.

For those of you that don't know me, let me introduce myself. I am a
Marquette graduate in Electrical Engineering and now work for Motorola. I
live in Spring Grove, IL with my wife Kay, and our three daughters, Katy,
Morgan and Erica. I have been doing woodworking for about the last 10 years
with the first project being a Lego table for my daughters. Other projects
have included a cedar deck and band saw jewelry boxes. The current project
is a new kitchen table, based on a WOOD magazine plan. The woodworking
interest has been spurred on by my in-laws, the Yezeks.

Now that you know a little about me, it is your turn. In order to get to
know you and your desires for the Guild, there is a survey included with
this newsletter. Please take a few minutes to fill it out and either return
in the mail to the address on the back, or return to the January meeting.
The board values your inputs.

Again, thanks for you confidence selecting me as president. I look forward
to serving you this year!


Reflections

Holiday Party
Dick Butula

The Guild Holiday Party changed locations this year.  It was held at Meyer’s
Restaurant in Greenfield.  The 74 members and guests all seemed to enjoy the
abundance of food and had a good time.  Members brought in the toys they had
built, which were proudly displayed.  The toys included strollers, cars,
trucks, trains, cradles, rocking horses, puzzles, tops, doll chairs, tanks,
tractors and boxes.   What a joyous sight to see all the time, talent and
effort that went into making so many different types of toys.  They should
surely bring big smiles to many children’s faces this Christmas.

        Many thanks go to the member’s wives and friends that contributed
dolls and made the dolls clothes, blankets and pillows for the cradles.
Some little girls should be made a little bit happier this Christmas.

Thanks to Liz Rohde and Mary Anderson for making all the arrangements for
the evening.  Events like this don’t just happen.  Someone has to take the
time and make the effort to get the job done.  Again, Thanks to Liz and Mary
for a job well done.

        The members that made toys and were at the party were given Awards
of appreciation.  Members that also made toys but were not at the party will
receive their awards at a future Guild meeting.

        The raffle prize announced in the October & November RIPSAW’s was a
Bosch12” Compound Miter Saw.  Becky Poull held the winning raffle ticket.
Becky and Bob’s 26th wedding anniversary was the next day.  What an easy way
to get such a nice present.  I hope Becky got something just as nice, even
though she only spent $5, (the cost of a raffle ticket)

        At the end of the dinner the toys were gathered and distributed on
seven tables for each one of the women’s shelters that will be receiving
them.  As we have heard at previous meetings, these toys are so greatly
appreciated.  This should make for many warm hearts, theirs and ours.


Woven and Bent Ornament Workshop


Four people each made a poinsettia, a heart, and a star shaped ornament in 4
hours.  Not too bad for a Saturday.  It was a new venture in steam bending
veneer. Tiny thin strips of walnut, cherry and oak were bent beyond their
ability to bend, thanks to the use of hot steam (okay, actually we put them
directly into water).  Additionally, the heart and the star were then woven
together.  Then glue was applied to join pieces together and the result was
lovely.  And yes, you can glue together wet pieces of wood veneer and they
stay put.

We laughed a lot, had nice snacks, enjoyed each others company and learned a
lot in the process. We glued fingers to the wood, thanks to the glue
accelerator.  We learned that nail polish remover really does help glue come
off of fingers.  We learned that you can probably make your own wood stain
by using the residue color that got left in the water.

The Rohde clan, Liz and her two daughters, Mary Anderson and Lydia
Kuechenmeister invaded the Crandall-Frink household, as well as Kevin
Seigworth, who left his women at home to come join 4 other women (very brave
man that Kevin).  Rich Frink was our official photographer and did a great
job.  Thanks Rich!

We had a great time.  So when is the next class?  By the way, after the
class the Rohdes stopped at Woodcraft and bought veneer and glue.  See what
happens when you go to one of WWG’s classes.

Thanks Leila and Rich,
Liz, Mary & Lydia

Raffle Column

 Alan Clapp

  Becky Roell joins the winners' circle of enthusiastic spouses who have won
the year end raffle prize. The Guild hopes you enjoy using your Bosch 12"
CMS as much as you and Don enjoy telling the story.
  Woodline USA gets our new year kicked off to a great start with a
versatile router bit set for the January 5 raffle. The donation is a
24-piece 1/2" shank set including straight, dovetail, cove, roundnose,
roundovers, rabbeting, trim and chamfer bits. For those of you who can't
wait to see it at the Guild meeting you can view the WL-2006 set at
www.woodbits.com.       Woodline USA located in LaVergne, TN offers
Wisconsin Woodworkers Guild members a 10% discount when you order on-line or
call them at 800-472-6950.

Success

There once was a teacher, whose principal feature was hidden in quite an odd
way. Students by the millions, perhaps even
zillions, surrounded him all of the day. When finally seen by his scholarly
dean and asked how he accomplished this deed. He raised three fingers and
said ,”all you swingers, you need just to follow my lead. To go from a zero
to big campus hero, to answer three questions you’ll strive.
Where Am I Going?
How Shall I Get There?
and
How Shall I Know I have Arrived?”

The Guild Needs to Constantly Ask Itself The Above Questions